Sony 52"XBR4 and general HDTV question. The first HDTV I ever fell in love with was the Sony XBR series. I've yet to buy an HDTV but recently I've been looking at the Sony 52" XBR4 in my local Circuit City store. They display it playing Blu-Ray movies and at first I was in awe of it but I've noticed a bit of an unnatural 3-D effect and was wondering why? And would a Plasma look more natural? I never really noticed it in the Sony's displayed at Best Buy so I'm a little confused.

Sony 52"XBR4 and general HDTV question. The first HDTV I ever fell in love with was the Sony XBR series. I've yet to buy an HDTV but recently I've been looking at the Sony 52" XBR4 in my local Circuit City store. They display it playing Blu-Ray movies and at first I was in awe of it but I've noticed a bit of an unnatural 3-D effect and was wondering why? And would a Plasma look more natural? I never really noticed it in the Sony's displayed at Best Buy so I'm a little confused.

Can you describe this '3-D' effect? I am not sure that I understand what your saying.

This is caused by the motion enhancer in the set. It adds interpolated frames to achieve the 120hz frame rate. You can easily turn it off in the user menu. When it is off the set will just repeat frames as needed to get to 120 fps and the 3D look will be gone.

Sony 52"XBR4 and general HDTV question. The first HDTV I ever fell in love with was the Sony XBR series. I've yet to buy an HDTV but recently I've been looking at the Sony 52" XBR4 in my local Circuit City store. They display it playing Blu-Ray movies and at first I was in awe of it but I've noticed a bit of an unnatural 3-D effect and was wondering why? And would a Plasma look more natural? I never really noticed it in the Sony's displayed at Best Buy so I'm a little confused.

Owners Thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=13810112
Calibration thread (125 pp)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=893076

The motion enhancer is NOT the 120hz, but it needs 120hz to work, if that makes sense.

I have my ME turned down to standard and it works excellently. The SUPER 3D effect you see is because the setting is at High and Cinemotion is set to Auto 1. If you stand closer you'll see ridiculous amounts of artifacting and pixelation in the background and in high contrast movements. (Someone with a white shirt running on a black background would be an extreme example)

Yes plasma is always more natural due to darker blacks and faster motion. Not to mention the way they handle color. And for the price cut over lcd they are an easy choice.